- Under a 12-count indictment, charges were filed against Russia’s Yury Orekhov, Artem Uss, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov
According to TASS, Russia's state-owned news agency article published on October 20, 2022, the US has charged five Russian nationals and two oil traders that are Venezuelan nationals with sanctions evasion and money laundering, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday.
Under a 12-count indictment, charges were filed against Russia’s Yury Orekhov, Artem Uss, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov, and Venezuelan oil traders Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto. According to the Department of Justice, Artem Uss is the son of Alexander Uss, the governor of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Region.
The statement alleged that the defendants were involved in "orchestrating a complex scheme to unlawfully obtain US military technology and Venezuelan sanctioned oil."
It said revenue from the sales of oil on the black market allegedly went to Russian "oligarchs" and an unidentified "petrochemical conglomerate based in Beijing." US officials asserted that the charged Venezuelan nationals brokered illicit oil deals with the Venezuelan state-run oil and gas company PDVSA.
In addition, the statement said US military technologies, including advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, radars and satellites that were allegedly obtained by the defendants were used in Russia’s defense sector. According to the Department of Justice, some of the electronic components that were allegedly obtained by the defendants "have been found in Russian weapons platforms" deployed in Ukraine.
According to the Department of Justice, Orekhov and Uss were detained in Germany and Italy, respectively, on October 17 and will undergo extradition proceedings. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of 30 years’ imprisonment.
